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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25529716">Rise On Me</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Delacroiix/pseuds/Delacroiix'>Delacroiix</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Voltron: Legendary Defender</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>M/M</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-07-26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-07-26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 08:15:04</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Not Rated</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,312</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25529716</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Delacroiix/pseuds/Delacroiix</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Years after the war and Allura's death, a ray of hope and love arises for Lance, when the old paladins reunite once again.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Keith/Lance (Voltron)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>12</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Rise On Me</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <hr/><p>I have not seen Keith in forever. When I watch him entering the castle I feel what I felt years ago, when he came back from his adventures with his mother. Like then, I see him changed. Bigger, sturdier. In the shape of his arms I distinguish the weight of the sword and the shield in a thousand battles. He comes to us and says hello. We talk of what has been of us, the often disregarded happily ever after that follows the great adventure. He tells us of the refugees the Blade has been helping, the corners of the universe we never got to explore. No word is spoken of the things he has seen, the unsettled waters in the haven of peace we founded. It seems everything is joy and content these days, but the darkness below his eyes tells me a different story.</p><p>                At night I go to him but like always, he is already one step ahead of me and is waiting at his door.</p><p>“Wanna take a stroll?” He nods.</p><p>                We walk in silence. The comfort we discovered at the end of the war seems to have been lost in the distance and with every second of stillness, I feel us drifting apart.</p><p>“How are things going for you? I don’t recall you saying anything,” he asks.</p><p>“No one asked,” I answer, which earns me a troubled look. “With all that you guys are doing, my living on a farm seems rather irrelevant. You all have moved forward. I am the only one who is right back at square one. It’s no wonder no one is interested. ”</p><p>“I’m interested,” he says, that soft smile on his lips, barely a curve.</p><p>“Sometimes I wonder whether I actually loved Allura. Romantically I mean,” I take a deep breath. “Back then it felt like love, but now I can’t even remember why I thought that. She was important to me, she was sweet and brave. But I don’t think she ever loved me the way I did and the more I think about it, the more I feel I was just a band aid for Lotor. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t bring her the hope that he symbolised. It really was not her fault, but I could see it many times in her expression. The many ways in which I was a disappointment to her. “</p><p>“Then she was a fool,” he paused, a gentle hand on my shoulder. “Why didn’t you tell this to anyone?”</p><p>“We all keep secrets Keith. We might have saved the world, but just because we experienced something as nerve-wrecking together, it doesn’t mean we really know each other. There are deep corners of ourselves we can only show in very special occasions to very special people. Those moments never arrived for me when I was a paladin, and our separation certainly hasn’t helped to deepen our bond. Just look at all the things you are not telling us.”</p><p>“What do you mean?” he spurts, his face subtly contorted in nervousness.</p><p>“I know what sleepless nights look like on you, buddy.”</p><p>                He pauses and swallows. I see that his mind is jumping from thought to thought, in the different arches of his eyebrows, the wrinkles in his nose and his jaw, clenching and unclenching. For all his reflection, his answer comes out as a shy mumble:</p><p>“ I...I cannot talk about it. Not now.”</p><p>                I try to convince him that he needs to talk about what is bothering him, that the more he keeps it inside the more it will break him. That the little red spot in a corner of his heart will soon dry out and turn black, and drench him like rain. Then, I tell him, it will be twice as hard.</p><p>“Don’t push me Lance!” he retorts and turns away.</p><p>                I follow him apologizing.</p><p>“I don’t want you to be drowned by what people expect of you. You do not need to be a lonesome samurai. And if you feel you need to become this silent cool guy in your job then do it, but then call me and find some peace in letting me share your burden. Whenever you are ready, you know you’ve got me.”</p><p>“Why?!” he screams. “I was never kind to you! Why would you help me?”</p><p>                He looks at me, shocked by his own rage. His head tilts downwards in shame so I try to ease him. I take him in my arms, a soft embrace that is finished as soon as it starts. Then I walk away from him to gather some courage.</p><p>“It may be because I haven’t had much to do since Voltron disbanded, but I have been thinking and it is entirely possible that I had a crush on you. I’ve pondered of the reasons why I might have been so jealous of a kid I barely knew. You see, for me you were the personification of an unachievable ideal, someone I could never be. The rebel without a cause. I thought I hated you because you had accomplished that which I never could. But now I’m realising, I never actually wanted to become that guy, I just wanted him to enter my life somehow. Someone who brought some novelty to my boring life, a lovable antagonist that I could call my enemy and best friend. When I met you, I was happy. Then you left and when you reappeared you didn’t even know me. I felt forsaken and I have spent the last years trying to make up for that abandonment, trying to mask the fact that I probably liked you and couldn’t cope with you not noticing me.”</p><p>                The curves in his face are refreshing. I have never seen him pull that expression. Confused, surprised, sorrowed, angry, conflicted. A thousand feelings all at once, are overfilling him to the brim and flooding every muscle of his face. A storm is coming for both of us.</p><p>“You don’t have to say anything Keith. It’s not like I expect you to like me back. I hope you forgive me for throwing this to your face, but I needed to let it free. Believe it or not, this is the first time I have actually said it out loud and it feels so painful, I could die right now. Is this even real?”</p><p>                Keith has changed now. The wind of emotions has settled and now I cannot quite read what has overcome him. He walks to me, passes a hand across my shoulders and places the other one in my waist. His face is serious but aching, his left eyebrow raised a little bit. I shudder under his hands, the intimacy of our positions downing on me.</p><p>“This is the realest thing that has ever happened to me.”</p><p>                He kisses me.</p><p>***</p><p>                We don’t go back to our rooms. Instead, we rush to the ship he has come in and lay on the floor. My name is on his lips all the time, no matter where or what he is kissing. Every sound he pronounces echoes in my ears like a bell, bringing me back from the feeling of unreality that has been haunting me for a while now. I tense and feel nauseous when he runs his hand through my naked stomach. He feels me trying to run away from him.</p><p>“Don’t be scared. It’s just me. It’s just us.”</p><p>                I nod and exhale under his weight. My mouth leaves his and looks for a new undiscovered corner of him that I can invade. I settle on his neck, my lips painting the borders of his apple, feeling the vibrations in his throat with every sudden moan. I feel him flourish with desire just above me and slip my hand downwards. He looks at me, shocked at the beginning. Then as I continue caressing him he looks away and hides himself in curve of my shoulder, repeating my name. “Lance. Lance. Lance.” It sounds so sweet in his breath, like honey falling on my tongue one drop at a time. He finishes soon and stifles his final moan by biting me. His teeth send a wave flowing and breaking at the base of my stomach.</p><p>“Sorry. That was too soon.”</p><p>                It’s alright, I want to say but when I try to speak no words leave my lips, just a breath of yearning, of despair. He unbuttons my pants and his head disappears between my thighs. Soon I feel his warmth all over me, outlining me from beginning to end. Unlike him I don’t moan. Instead I breathe heavily, like he is sucking the air out of my lungs. I sigh and gasp, losing myself in his touch until like him I finish, perhaps a little too soon.</p><p>                I bring his face to mine eager to devour him. My fierceness surprises me. I always thought he was the most savage of the too. Now I find that no matter how much I have, it will never be enough. I stop a second to ponder what may happen when he leaves the castle of lions tomorrow, how he will look at me in the morning with full conscience of the passion that is overcoming us right now. What expression will he pull? Will he have shame in his eyes? Will he hate me? I tremble at the image of disgust in his face and I decide to be selfish and keep a part of him for myself. If tomorrow I am to let him go, tonight I want to have him whole. I tell him so.</p><p>“Are you sure? What if it hurts?”</p><p>“If we both want this, nothing else matters right now. Maybe tomorrow it will, but not now.”</p><p>                He nods and holds me tight. We embrace each other. I kiss him strongly, leaving the bruise of my lips all over him. It is messy. We are both lost in the anarchy of unrestricted strokes. The borders of our bodies have fallen and we revolve around the edge of our touch like satellites. When he takes me I cry tears of pain. His presence in me is vast, overwhelming. I know where it begins but not where it ends. No corner of me is left untouched. Instead he loves every part of me, vigorous and constantly. At every instant I try not to lose my grip on him, fearing I will be swept away by this feeling of realness. At the end I feel him like a tide rising from our connection. Everything comes to me at once.  I feel the moon and the stars and his laugh the first time we were in the castle of lions, just after we saved the Arusians in one of our first adventures. The brightness of his shy smile as we watched the setting sun and his hand on mine like the days before our final battle. Above all I feel the softness of his touch as he cradled my almost lifeless body the day I almost died. I hold him and he holds me and at last, we are partners.</p><p>***</p><p>“It hurt me that you tried to erase our moment together. Aside from Shiro, I had never felt a bond since my father died. Then I noticed you were falling more and more in love with Allura and I couldn’t bear how she hurt you. So I tried to erase you as well. I left Voltron, but even the distance wouldn’t take you out of my mind. Every time I thought of calling you I wondered whether you will have missed me. I was a coward really. Despite my feelings, when I came back I rejected you because I couldn’t fall into you again. I thought, I will just leave him be happy with Allura. When she died, for a little while I had the awful plan of taking you for myself while you were weak with grief. Miserable right?”</p><p>“A little bit. But I forgive you and I know she would do it too.”</p><p>                I lay with my head on his chest, my lips grazing his glorious skin when I speak. His hand is on my head, running his fingers across my hair in an endless knot.</p><p>                The sun rises on us and Keith rises with it. I don’t think many people realise how much more intimate dressing up someone can be compared to undressing them. Last night we took each other’s clothes with hunger and carelessness. All we needed was to tear down the walls that separated us and how we did it was irrelevant. We were trapped in immediacy and couldn’t imagine the existence of a moment before or a moment after. Now we dress the other with care and tenderness, smoothing the fabric to fit their body, knowledgeable of past, present and future. Slowly and meditatively, mourning the last moments of our intimacy.</p><p>“Lance, in a few hours I leave again,” Keith tells me as I button his shirt. “But I will come back. I will come back for you Lance. I will bring novelty to you again and whatever you want to do in this universe, I swear I will make it happen. All I ask is you let me be there to see you. Is that alright?”</p><p>                I don’t even look at him. The realness of our love felt so heavy on me last night and now it is like the sky and the air, covering me wherever I go. A certainty that I never have to check.</p><p>“I will be waiting,” I say.</p><p>                Keith cups my face and slowly moves his hands up to my ears. With the tip of his fingers he delves in my hair and taps me with his head. We stay like that for a little longer, our foreheads touching. I feel free.</p>
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